This application relates generally to data delivery. More specifically, the disclosure provided herein relates to a verification service for providing data delivery with sender verification.
Sender spoofing includes activity where headers or other information associated with emails, messages, or other content is altered. The altered headers or other information can indicate, for example, a source of the content that differs from an actual source of the content. While sender spoofing can be used for legitimate purposes, sender spoofing is often associated with fraudulent or other illegitimate activity such as phishing emails, various forms of cyber attacks, unsolicited bulk emails (“UBE” or Spam), and/or other activity. As such, some software and devices are configured to detect sender spoofing and block delivery of content if sender spoofing is detected.
Various sender spoofing detection techniques can fail, however, in certain circumstances. For example, if an email account is compromised, illegitimate activity can originate from a valid email address and thus may go undetected by sender spoofing detection devices or applications. As such, a compromised email address and/or user identity may be used by an attacker to send phishing messages, UBE, or other content. Because the activity originates from a legitimate address and/or is associated with a legitimate identity, some sender spoofing techniques may be unable to detect the fraudulent or illegitimate activity.
Furthermore, some sender spoofing detection techniques may block legitimate activity that makes use of techniques sometimes used by malicious attackers, even if these techniques are used for legitimate purposes. For example, a user may indicate a “reply-to” address that differs from a “sent-from” address for various legitimate purposes such as, for example, relaying an SMS message via a website, sending a business email from a home email address, and the like. In these and other cases, the real source of the content and the indicated source may differ and therefore may be blocked by some sender spoofing detection techniques.